Enlightenment/Great Awakening

Deism:

  • Religion of science
  • if creation, then the creator
  • natural men
    • insult
  • You worship God as a creation
  • God gave us reasons, our duty is to care for the earth (progress/ improvement)
  • God created the Earth and then left it (clockmaker idea)

Pre-Enlightenment:

  • Issac Newton(1642-1727)
    • Principia Mathematica(1687)
    • a human can discover the laws of the universe by observing the elements
  • Thomas Hobbes(1588-1679)
    • Believes humans are born evil and selfish
    • He wants an absolute monarchy
    • He says that we should have someone above us to control us
    • Leviathan(1651)
    • Definition of good vs. evil
      • Good: what so ever I desire
      • Evil: what so ever I hate
    • Because he believes we are selfish then whatever we both desire we will have a conflict over it
    • So to fix all this we should have an absolute monarchy
    • we should give away all our rights so we can improve the world(whole)

Enlightenment:

  • Immanuel Kant
    • Made the term enlightenment
    • Said this is our awakening from self-incurred immaturity
  • John Locke(1632-1704)
    • He kind of influenced the Declaration of Independence but not completely
    • He said we have 3 natural rights the moment we are born:
    • Life
    • Liberty
    • Property
    • Essay Concerning Human Understanding(1690)
    • Tabula Rasa - “blank Slate”
    • He dismissed Hobbes’s idea of humans being born evil and said that all humans are born clean
    • He thinks that the idea of an absolute monarch is a very much stupid idea and it takes away our power, so instead, he wants the two-way contract
    • the governor should give all humans their rights to freedom and guarantee certain conditions
    • the governee should follow all the laws
    • He was an Empiricist
    • meaning that knowledge comes from experience
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau(1712-1778)
    • He was influenced by Locke but tweaked a few things
    • He says that “man is born free, and he is everywhere in chains”
    • When we are born we are born into liberty, but the problem is that society takes away that freedom
    • “Discourse on Inequality”(1754)
    • all humans are born good and can be good in their lifetime
    • unnatural restrictions
      • sociality limits people
      • this makes humans bad
    • He doesn’t like an absolute monarch or the two-way contract
    • He says we need an absolute-pure democracy
    • every person should have equal rights in the government
  • Thomas Paine(1737-1809)
    • Rationalism
    • using reason and logic to prove things
    • He says “I think, therefore I am”
    • Deism
    • belief in God as a creator
    • if creation, then a creator
    • reasoning - we use it to apply it to the world
    • we should care for each other
    • improvement & progress
    • Common Sense(1776)
    • The American Crisis(1776-1783)
    • The Age of Reason(1794,1795,1807)
    • He argues for Deism
  • Adam Smith(1723-1790)
    • Capitalism
    • He thought we would be able to care for each other and help each other become better. Which could lead to progress in society
    • We should compete with each other to do better
  • James Madison
    • Wants a representative,
    • the representative will have the people's opinions in mind
    • control the effect
    • faction
    • a number of citizens united by a common purpose

New Age of Reason vs New Age of Faith

  • New Age of Reason:(enlightenment)
    • The head/brain
    • the idea of self-evident truths
    • our truth comes from our self
    • valuing thought
  • New Age of Faith:(Great awakening)
    • The heart
    • the idea of biblical revelation
    • our truth comes from the bible
    • valuing feeling

Quiz:

  • Enlightenment
    • Thinkers(both Enlightenment)
    • Titles of books
    • Significant Idea
  • Great Awakening
    • Franklin